Washington Commissioner Disciplines Agents and Brokers this June 2018

A Washington state consumer asked Graves for a quote from Farmers Insurance for an auto policy that included his two sons. Graves provided the quote but excluded the sons from the quote. Graves also issued false certificates for liability to the state Department of Labor and Industries for policies for three Spokane businesses.

Martinez, an insurance producer, her agency, and one of its insurance producers, Lindy Layton, failed to provide the invoice of a commercial insurance policy to the consumer’s mortgage company in a timely manner. The mortgage company requested the invoice several times. As a result, the mortgage company was unable to pay the premium on the consumer’s policy, the insurer canceled the policy for nonpayment and the property was uninsured for two months. Additionally, the new policy cost twice as much as the canceled policy, which caused the consumer’s mortgage escrow account to be short.

GC Insurance and McDaniel charged broker fees to consumers but either failed to disclose them or only partially disclosed them, instead including them in the premiums. The fees varied by consumer and by policy. State law requires insurance producers to disclose fees in writing to consumers.

The agency failed to return premium refunds to consumers in a timely manner, despite being told to by the insurance commissioner’s financial examiners several times. Monteith held onto one refund totaling $3,267 for more than five months.

A consumer filed a complaint with the insurance commissioner after Taylor sold a life insurance policy and misrepresented the terms of the policy. The consumer reported that Taylor said if he canceled the policy within two years of obtaining it, Farmers would refund all of the premium payments plus 10 percent interest. The consumer asked to cancel the policy and was told he would only get back his last two premium payments, a total of $1,328. The consumer was expecting to get back nearly $5,700 in premium payments plus 10 percent interest.

The licensed insurance producer collected a yearly premium payment from a consumer but didn’t remit it to the insurer due to an accounting error. The insurer issued a cancelation notice to the consumer, but Hub overnighted the payment to the insurer and the policy remained in place.

Other violations

The insurance commissioner fined the following insurance producers for failing to notify the agency of administrative actions against them: